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Published: June 29th 2017
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Geo: -22.9035, -43.2096
Having arrived in Rio in the dark, we were delighted to wake in the morning to spectacular beach views. We're 21 floors up with a full view of Copacobana beach. Our hotel is pretty impressive. The room offers one of the most comfortable beds ive enjoyed in a while and perfect climate control, great for escaping the heat and humidity here in Rio. Theres a buffet breakfast included, gym, jacuzzis and a couple of pools (one rooftop with incredible views).
Our first two days here have been very relaxed. Fortunatley, jetlag hasnt really been an issue. We recovered fine after a good nights sleep and got up for breakfast Friday morning by 9. For the first couple days its been hot (30-35C), humid and largely overcast. As stated in my previous entry, the currency here is the Brazillian Real. 1AUD = approx 2.7BRL. Restaurants in the area seem around 30% cheaper than Melbourne. Steaks are around $15-20. Street food is pretty cheap, a kebab or burger is around $3-4. Beers are around $2 or less from supermarkets. Were just relaxing before heading out to dinner at the end of our second full day (Saturday), and early impressions of Brazillian
food and beer are not particularly good. We went to a recommended well reviewed Brazillian-French restaraunt last night (Galeria 1618) and found it pretty dissappointing value. They didnt quite get our order right and even taking the food (steaks) for what it was, well Nat cooks a LOT better..
Over the last couple days weve been up and down Copacobana beach in both directions along the waterfront, and a few streets back, inching back street by street as confidence grew. We also had a look in Ipanema, a slightly more crowded but comparable beach and area to Copacabana. Its a funny thing, when youve not travelled for a couple years, in a different culture, just finding your way and confidence in your surroundings and gathering your bearings. After all the horror stories, its hardly been remotely scary or concerning day or night, walking around the area. None the less were always cautious. We tried a cab ride out to the highly rated Botanical Gardens. I checked price and open hours before leaving, but we arrived to find it unexpectedly closed for renovations and maintenance. The language here in Rio is Portuguese and generally English among the locals is not particularly prevalent
or well spoken. Half the cab drivers and hospitality people speak zero English, and the rest speak some. Almost none fluently but enough to get by.
The entire city is surrounded by think, dense green jungle, a spattering of islands and erratic and spectacularly steep mountains. Weve spotted two notable peaks; one being Sugarloaf and the other adorned with the iconic Christo the Redeemer, overlooking the city. We saw a cheeky monkey before. Hopping up a tropical tree on our way back from the supermarket.Weve spent time by the beach, in the jacuzzis and swimming in and snoozing by the rooftop pool. We do have a couple tours booked for the next two days; Sunday and Monday. I wanted to book a trip to the infamous Maracana stadium (where the Fifa World Cup 2014 final was held and Olympic opening cermony 2016 will be held, but that too was closed for maintenance).
Tomorrow, Sunday we have a 4 hour tour to explore both the "Favela da Rochina" neighborhood and the Tijuca Forest, the biggest urban forest in the world. Monday, we have an 8 hour tour that will cover a trip to visit Christ the Redeemer (by Corcovado Train), Sugarloaf by
cable car and a city tour.Tuesday morning we head to the airport to fly to Iguazu Falls for 3 days. We managed to reschedule our failed Mozio airport pickup to take us back to the airport at no extra cost. As for now were off to find some dinner as the sun sets on our second day in Brazil and South America.
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